2021 marks twenty years since ARC planted its first two churches. It has been a milestone year as we celebrate twenty years of planting and growing the local church together with our ARC Family. The vision of ARC has remained consistent over the past twenty years; to see a thriving church in every community, reaching people with the message of Jesus.
This year, you helped plant 64 new churches, bringing the total number of churches planted through ARC to 994 churches. More than 15,000 people attended these launch day services, and 500 people gave their lives to Jesus! Right behind them are 78 couples currently training and preparing to launch in the coming months. We are excited to cross the 1,000 churches planted mark in January 2022.
Not only were we able to equip new church planters, but you helped existing churches thrive by providing them with relationship, resource, and opportunity.
In April, we held Gather: An ARC Regional One Day event in 20 cities nationwide. In just one day, across all 20 locations, we saw 6,600 people register to attend, making it our largest event to date!
In October, another 4,000 pastors and leaders joined us in Charleston, SC, for the twentieth anniversary ARC Conference and thousands more watched online. We believe that no one should do ministry alone. These events created opportunities for God to build relationships between pastors and helped ministry leaders grow stronger, ultimately strengthening the local church.
ARC’s Global Networks launched four new churches in countries around the world in 2021. ARC Canada held an ARC Road Trip in four cities across Canada, and ARC Ireland held the ARC Ireland Conference with 200 people in attendance. In addition to our existing six Global Networks, Brazil, UK, and India networks are in progress. That is incredible!
This fall, we held an exciting new ARC Launch training event that helps potential church planters learn more about ARC. We had nearly 200 pastors and church planters attend the event, where they learned about ARC’s values, the essentials of church planting, the launch process, and determined if they would like to take the next step towards planting a church with ARC. Following the event, 35 couples expressed interest in planting a church with ARC. Multiple ARC Launch events are scheduled across the country in 2022.
We could not do what we do without the help of all of our partners giving toward the mission of ARC. Thanks to our ARC Family, $7 million was invested into church planting this year.
Our story is just unfolding—because of you. Every new church planted, every life changed, and community transformed is another page in that story. Together, we will continue to witness God write His story around the world. There is no us without you.
Dino Rizzo serves as the Executive Director of ARC and on the Senior Leadership Team at Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama. Dino and his wife DeLynn have more than 35 years of ministry experience. Their heart to be the hands and feet of Jesus is evident in everything they do. Dino began the Servolution movement, which has evolved into thousands of churches participating in Serve Day each year. He has written multiple books, including Servolution and Serve Your City. In 2000, Dino and five other pastors co-founded the Association of Related Churches (ARC). With a vision to see a thriving church in every community, reaching people with the message of Jesus, ARC has helped plant over 900 churches since it began.
